The recently released 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture shows that farms specializing in specialty crops accounted for 10% of all farm operations.
Specialty crop operations include those that primarily grow vegetables and melons, fruit and tree nuts, and greenhouse, nursery, and floriculture products and are responsible for $84 billion in cash receipts (15% of the U.S. total), according to data from the USDA.
For 127 counties (or county equivalents), specialty crop farms accounted for more than 40% of all farms within the county, according to the USDA.
“Most of these counties are in states along the West and East coasts (including Alaska and Hawaii) and in or near metropolitan areas,” the USDA said in a summary of the data. “Half of the counties with the highest concentration of farms primarily engaged in growing specialty crops were in California, New York, Florida, and New Jersey.”
Almost all (95%) of U.S. counties with farms, as well as every state, had at least one farm growing primarily specialty crops, the release said.
